National Comics Vol 1 12
Supporting Characters: * Antagonists: * five saboteur gang leaders * a Major, their boss ** tank crews, artillery crews, infantry Locations: * Mammoth City Arsenal | Writer2_1 = Toni Blum | Penciler2_1 = Nick Cardy | Inker2_1 = Nick Cardy | StoryTitle2 = Sally O'Neil, Policewoman: "The President's Son" | Synopsis2 = Sally is sent undercover to Caliente, Mexico, to investigate racetrack crime. There she meets handsome Manuel, who woos her ardently but in vain. She doesn't catch his last name. The next day, in Mexico City, the Presidente's son turns up missing. Sally decides to volunteer her help with that problem, and on her way to the police station she randomly encounters an old New York acquaintance, Pancho, who ran the chile con carne restaurant on 10th St. Pancho warns Sally that the police are not to be trusted. Sure enough, two Mexico City cops decide right then to arrest Sally and Pancho; Sally steps up and starts slapping the cops, telling Pancho to run. They run all the way out of Mexico City, then ride by ox cart to Pancho's rancho at Ixtaco. Pancho knows for sure that somebody is being held at the old Spanish villa near his home, and suspects it may be the Presidente's missing son. In broad daylight, Sally scales the vine-clad tower wall of this old Spanish villa. At the top of the tower she finds a cell, with handsome Manuel in it. Sally and her police revolver do some damage to the bars in the window, and Manuel wrenches them free. They get spotted on their way down the wall. Manuel borrows Sally's pistol, and shoots one bad cop dead. By dint of an unlikely stunt, they both get safely to the ground and escape. Manuel turns out to be Manuel Cardos, the Presidente's missing son, and they all share a good laugh at the Presidential Palace. | Appearing2 = Featured Characters: * Sally O'Neil Antagonists: * Cardos's uncle ** many corrupt Mexico City police Other Characters: * President Cardos * President Cardos' son * Pancho * Pancho's family: ** Carmita, wife ** Arturo ** Carlotta ** Ferdinande ** Jose ** Juanita ** Pepito Locations: * ** Caliente ** Mexico City *** Police HQ *** Presidential Palace ** Pancho's rancho at Ixtaco *** old Spanish villa nearby Vehicles: * ox cart | StoryTitle3 = Wonder Boy: "The Carney Coal Mine Disaster" | Synopsis3 = A cave-in at the Carney Coal Mine traps 36 miners, who seem doomed, until Wonder Boy shows up to help out. The mine owners scoff, briefly, at that idea, until they see what he can do. One old miner teams up with the kid, but three uniformed security guards block their path to the mine, briefly. As they ride the rickety elevator down into the mine, an unseen person snips the lift cable. Wonder Boy is able to stop the car and the old miner is able to get out of it. They crawl through Shaft 6, which has gas in it, until they hear some tapping, but right then a mass of huge shale boulders rumbles down the tunnel toward them! Wonder Boy grabs the old miner and leaps up a ventilation shaft in the overhead, and from there they work their way to Shaft 5. There is another explosion in the mine, and the shaft behind them is caved in, so forward they go. They encounter a runaway mine cart and a stampede of mine mules. Wonder Boy wrangles the mules into helping him pry out a high-pressure bulkhead in the mine wall, and this opens a path to the trapped miners. They tell their story: The miners had discovered a vein of , and the Carney Brothers wanted to keep that a secret, ruthlessly turning their own mine into a giant deathtrap for dozens of men. The brothers try to escape in a car, but Wonder Boy easily apprehends them. | Writer3_1 = Toni Blum | Penciler3_1 = Al Bryant | Inker3_1 = Al Bryant | Appearing3 = Featured Characters * Antagonists: * Bo Carney * Bo Carney's brother ** their rented cops Other Characters: * one old miner * thirty-six trapped miners Locations: * Carney Coal Mine Animals: * five or more mine mules | Writer4_1 = Lynn Byrd | Penciler4_1 = Witmer Williams | Inker4_1 = Witmer Williams | StoryTitle4 = Prop Powers: "The Grain Thieves" | Synopsis4 = A large-scale theft takes place at the Great Warner Grain Elevator, on the Western Shore of Lake Michigan, in which a watchman is murdered, and at least ten loaded grain trucks get away. On the East Coast, Prop Powers has been dispatched by his military boss to investigate a rash of these crimes, along with his assistant Lank. They fly to Wisconsin in Prop's fast plane, but bad weather makes them use up their fuel too quickly, and they are forced to land, near a large highway. Right away a big fleet of grain trucks rolls by at top speed, and doesn't stop for them at all. After a few more trucks roar by, Prop and Lank grab onto the last one and scramble aboard it. The truck is full of grain, so they've hit the jackpot, but they've also been spotted. The truck halts, two gunmen pile out of the front of it, Prop and Lank jump onto them from the truck top, and knock out both. Leaving Lank in charge of these losers, Prop drives the truck in pursuit of the convoy. He follows the trucks off the main road, into a cavern, leading into a gigantic underground hangar. Inside are (at least 3) two-engine transport planes, a fighter plane armed with light bombs, and all ten (or more) of the grain trucks. The base's commander, Herr Doktor, steps onto the field and addresses his troops. The big plan here is to load all this grain onto the freight planes and fly it back to the Fatherland. While he rants, Prop works his way over toward that one fighter plane, but he gets spotted again. There's a short fistfight, then Powers reaches the plane, starts it up, and takes off. Almost immediately five more pursuit planes are right behind him! Prop pulls an extremely tight diving turn and drops a bomb right onto the cavern's opening. Also he calls out a mayday, and describes the enemy's position. Soon some Coast Guard biplanes arrive to make the 5-to-1 dogfight a little less uneven. Soon the enemy pilots are routed. | Appearing4 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Lank Loomis * Powers's commander Antagonists: * ** many hench: drivers, killers, look-outs, etc. Locations: * ** Great Warner Grain Elevator ** cave Vehicles: * Powers's single-engine airplane * 5th Columnist transport planes, 3 * 5th Columnist fighter planes, 5 * U.S. Coast Guard fighter biplanes, lots | Writer5_1 = Klaus Nordling | Penciler5_1 = Klaus Nordling | Inker5_1 = Klaus Nordling | StoryTitle5 = Kid Dixon: "Contenders Wanted" | Synopsis5 = Kid Dixon wins a prizefight in Portal City, then sticks around. A local fight promoter, Mercener, cooks up a plan for getting rid of him. Dixon is set up to referee a wrestling match between two paid-off leg-breakers, (Joe Gallus and "the Saint," each about twice the size of Dixon), and to get jumped by both of them at once. This plan blows up on them, as the Kid outfights both of these musclemen together, right there in front of the crowd. Half a dozen thugs with blunt instruments scramble into the ring; Kid Dixon takes them all out too. The crowd goes wild, rioting erupts throughout the arena. Police show up, and Kid gets blamed for the carnage, so he's arrested. He spends some thoughtful time in a jail cell, not quite figuring out what's going on here. More prisoners are pouring in, from the police raid on the Coliseum, and soon Dixon has a cellmate, Joe Gallus, one of the bushwhacking wrestlers at that! Kid Dixon extracts a written confession from this loser, plus just then his manager Topps shows up with bail money. Meanwhile in his office suite, Mercener the promoter is getting his arm twisted by the other wrestler, "the Saint," who inflicts a serious-looking injury on him, just before the police show up to take them both away. | Appearing5 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * B. Galsworthy "Bottle" Topps, Dixon's Manager Antagonists: * Mercener, fight promoter ** Joe Gallus, a wrestler ** the Saint, a wrestler ** batch of thugs Other Characters: * Ruckus, a boxer * Ruckus's manager Locations: * Portal City ** Portal City Coliseum | Writer6_1 = Nick Cardy | Penciler6_1 = Al Bryant | Inker6_1 = Al Bryant | StoryTitle6 = Quicksilver: "The Rascelli Expose" | Synopsis6 = A major metropolitan newspaper publishes a story about the Rascelli Mob. The Mob retaliates, sending four gunmen, late at night, to kidnap the editor right out of his office. Standing on top of a neon sign across the street, watching that office, is Quicksilver, who propels himself into the newspaper office via a closed window. He snatches the editor out of their grasp before they even know he's there, then somersaults, bounces, punches, and sprints through the building, dodging some bullets along the way, defeating all four of these fools. One thug gets run through the press. Quicksilver gets Rascelli's address and arrives in time to crash a lavish high-society party being held there. He thrashes Rascelli in front of all his guests, just before a phalanx of cops arrives to arrest him and the rest of his mob. | Appearing6 = Featured Characters: * Antagonists: * Rascelli Mob ** 4 kidnappers Other Characters: * newspaper editor * many cops Locations: * News Star office and printing plant * 520 Crown Street, Rascelli's lavish office | Writer7_1 = Dan Wilson | Penciler7_1 = Charles Nicholas | Inker7_1 = Charles Nicholas | StoryTitle7 = Kid Patrol: "Sunshine's Inheritance" | Synopsis7 = Sunshine gets a letter but he can't read it and neither can his Uncle Clem. The letter claims that Sunshine's Uncle Lenny has died and left his property in Kentucky to Sunshine. Porky and Teddy decide to go with Teddy. When they get to Sunville, Kentucky, the train station agent warns Sunshine that Uncle Lenny's house is haunted. On their way up the road to the house, a crazed old man jumps out of the bushes and warns them to stay away from the house, then runs away. At the mansion, they meet Creeps the butler, who seems to be insane. They ignore all these warnings and turn in for the night, three in one big bed. The bed falls apart in the middle of the night, then all of the furniture in the house starts dancing, then a KKK-looking ghost figure lurches into the room and warns them to flee. Teddy knocks the figure out by throwing something at its head. A second ghost figure is in the hallway; Sunshine grabs a curved sword off the wall and charges at the ghost. The ghost flees in panic and bungles his way into sliding down a long banister and hitting his head at the bottom. The Kid Patrol surround the woozy ghost, who turns out to be Creeps the butler. The other ghost turns out to be the crazy old man from the bushes, who in turn turns out to be Sunshine's "late" Uncle Lenny. Lenny hadn't seen Sunshine in ten years, missed him, and loved a good practical joke. According to Creeps, the "dancing furniture" gag "was all done with wires". | Appearing7 = Featured Characters: * Kid Patrol ** Teddy ** Porky ** Sunshine Supporting Characters: * Uncle Clem Antagonists: * Creeps, the butler Other Characters: * Cousin Lenny * station agent Locations: * Sunville, ** Sunshine's cousin's mansion | Writer8_1 = | Penciler8_1 = Reed Crandall | Inker8_1 = Reed Crandall | StoryTitle8 = Paul Bunyan: "The Mad Moose and the Three-Eyed Lynx" | Synopsis8 = Back in the Winter of the Blue Snow, Paul Bunyan had some trouble with the Mad Moose and the Three-Eyed Lynx. The snowdrifts were 16 feet deep, and Paul plowed right through them, on his way to help out a friend. Some timber wolves attacked him, but he killed them all with a knife. He reached Pete Ayres's logging operation, and found it completely shut down due to the nightly predations of the Three-Eyed Lynx, which had been killing the loggers's horses and terrorizing the loggers. Plus, every day, a mad moose galloped through the camp, killing everybody in his path. Bunyan kept a lookout that night, spotted a three-eyed lynx, and using a pine-knot torch, he tracked the beast to a ridge above the camp then into a cave. Inside the cave he was attacked by two three-eyed lynxes, and smashed their skulls against the cave walls. He carried their bodies back along his own trail, but dropped them when he heard the mighty roar of the Mad Moose echoing through the forest. He met the moose in a big clearing, and they grappled for a while, until the 1500-pound moose broke off the fight and ran away, dizzy and demoralized. Shortly later it was found, dead, with its neck broken. Paul celebrated by devouring an astounding amount of flapjacks. | Appearing8 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * elderly storyteller Animals: * wolves * Three-Eyed Lynx * Mad Moose Other Characters: * Pete Ayres, Paul's friend Locations: * way up north | Writer9_1 = Klaus Nordling | Penciler9_1 = Klaus Nordling | Inker9_1 = Klaus Nordling | StoryTitle9 = Pen Miller: "The Pyramid Papers" | Synopsis9 = The manuscript for Mr. Inkslinger's unauthorized and unflattering biography of Joseph Pyramid goes missing, and Inkslinger recruits Pen Miller's help to recover it. Leaving Inkslinger at his office, Pen and Niki go visit Mr. Pyramid. There's a brief interruption while Pyramid's burly butler Lady-Finger Harry tries to stop them, but Niki applies jiu-jitsu, down he goes. Miller beats and tricks an admission out of Pyramid; he does know about Inkslinger's book. Joe pulls out a gun; Pen knocks it to the floor. Henchmen run in; Pen punches them down. Pyramid electrifies the only doorway out of the room that Miller is in; a henchman is electrocuted. Pyramid gloats a little too long and carelessly, thus gets grabbed and yanked halfway into the trap-room, through the ceiling. Pyramid hands over the manuscript. Miller uses a coin to short-circuit the electrified doorway, and leaves Joe Pyramid stuck in place to await the cops. | Appearing9 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Niki, his valet Antagonists: * Joseph Pyramid ** Lady-Finger Harry, his butler ** three other henchmen Other Characters: * Mr. Inkslinger | Writer11_1 = Lowell Riggs | Penciler11_1 = Chuck Mazoujian | Inker11_1 = Chuck Mazoujian | StoryTitle11 = Jack & Jill: "The Murderous Ghost of Frozen Creek" | Synopsis11 = One night at midnight a man walks up to Jack & Jill Doe's front door and knocks at it until Jack opens it, hands him a note, then falls down dead. The note says: "I have been poisoned by the Ghost of Frozen Creek . . . Avenge my death!" The Does go to Frozen Creek, a big, old, seemingly abandoned, and supposedly haunted mansion. They explore the interior using flashlights. One tread on the main stairway is a trapdoor; Jill drops through it noiselessly, and it takes Jack a minute to notice. While he is looking for Jill, the lights all come on. A nearby portrait (with tied-up, gagged-up Jill behind it) has moving eyes, and while Jack is pondering that, a giant figure sneaks up behind him. Jack whirls and lunges into the giant, bounces off, he flings a chair at his head, no effect, he pulls a pistol and shoots him in the leg, then head-konks him unconscious when he falls down. Jack pulls Jill out of the space behind the portrait, and Jill leads Jack down another dark passage, at the end of which they find a man in a dark room, and accuse him of being the "Ghost of Frozen Creek," to which he instantly admits, out loud and in writing, handing them a signed confession. He had tried to frighten his cousin away from the old house and had ended up resorting to murder. When Mr. and Mrs. Doe get back home, the police are waiting, with some questions about the dead man laying on their front stoop, but a quick explanation, plus the written confession, wins them over. | Appearing11 = Featured Characters: * Jack Doe * Jill Doe Antagonists: * The Ghost of Frozen Creek * giant thug Other Characters: * The Ghost's cousin * two cops Locations: * Frozen Creek mansion | StoryTitle12 = Merlin: "Magic Vs. U-Boat" | Synopsis12 = Out on the North Atlantic Ocean the merchant ship Englandia is struck with a torpedo from a submarine and rapidly begins to sink. Merlin the Magician is aboard, and urges the panicking crew to stay aboard and assemble on the main deck. He forms a giant air bubble around them; the ship still sinks, coming to rest on the bottom with everybody still aboard and breathing. He advises the crew to remain calm and that he'll be gone for several hours, then heads for the surface. He makes friends with a shark. The shark helps him to find the submarine, which is on the surface. Merlin charges in, changing the shark into a torpedo. While the skipper futilely empties his Luger at the speeding magician, he rides around and over and under the sub, but he doesn't blow it up because he needs the submarine intact. The sub dives, thus momentarily escaping. Merlin transforms the torpedo back into a shark, rides it to the submarine's position, then sends it on its way unharmed. Then he pries open a deck hatch and enters the submarine, along with thousands of gallons of ocean water. While they're still able to hear him, Merlin offers the crew one chance to live. The captain accepts his terms, and Merlin expels all the water from the sub's interior. Then he tells the captain it's time to rescue the Englandia's crew from the bottom of the ocean. That idea takes a little getting used to, but soon the sub is positioned next to the Englandia's air bubble, and the merchant crewmen are all brought aboard. Back on the surface, the submarine now motors toward England, and soon there's more trouble: a patrolling RAF scout plane spots the sub and dive-bombs it. Just before the bomb hits, Merlin transforms it into a parrot, it lands on his shoulder, he gives it a message, and the parrot flies back to the scout plane, to tell the pilot about the captured sub. Soon the submarine reaches port, and Merlin quickly leaves, already in search of further excitement elsewhere. | Writer12_1 = Fred Guardineer | Penciler12_1 = Fred Guardineer | Inker12_1 = Fred Guardineer | Appearing12 = Featured Characters: * Animals: * talking shark Antagonists: * ** submarine captain *** his crew Other Characters: * crew of the Englandia Locations: * Mid-Atlantic Ocean * coast of Britain Items: * Merlin's Magic Cloak Vehicles: * S.S. Englandia, merchant ship * Nazi submarine * RAF scout bomber | Notes = * In this issue Merlin begins saying his spells backwards. * In "Magic Vs. U-Boat", no actual swastikas or other German markings appear on the submarine or on the captain's uniform. * Pen Miller smokes a pipe. * At one point Quicksilver gets hit in the head with a zinc mold, which makes him dizzy but doesn't knock him out. However he does fall off a catwalk. * Also featured in this issue of National Comics were: ** Windy Breeze, by Jack Cole ** Miss Winky, by Arthur Beeman ** "Doggone Patriotism" (text story) ** "Have A Laugh" | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = * National Comics #12 June 1941, entire issue }}